And now, thanks to new research, that number just became even more ridiculous.

Scientists have discovered 10 never-before-seen moons of Jupiter in 2017 and confirmed two others that had already been seen, bringing the total number of known moons circling the gas giant planet to 79, more than any other planet in the solar system.

How exactly did these moons evade detection for so long? Well, it's not as if they're large and bright like some of Jupiter's other moons, for instance, Europa or Ganymede.

These are tiny moons that are likely obscured by gas and dust. It took about a year to confirm their existences and their orbits, which is why we haven't heard about them until now.

Nine of the moons are considered retrograde, which means they orbit in the opposite direction of Jupiter's spin, according to the researchers.

Two of the moons orbit in the same direction as Jupiter's rotation, and they have a surprising backstory. Both of them, say scientists, are likely pieces of another, larger moon that broke apart at some point in the planet's past.

And the last moon is a weird one.

"Our other discovery is a real oddball and has an orbit like no other known Jovian moon," Scott Sheppard, Carnegie scientist and leader of the team behind the discovery, said in a statement.

"It's also likely Jupiter's smallest known moon, being less than one kilometer in diameter."

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